Hong Kong – China is adding yet another superlative to its aviation roster: the world’s largest airport on a man-made island. Currently under construction off the country’s northeast coast, the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport will eventually cover a 20-square-kilometer (7.7-square-mile) island with four runways and a 900,000-square-meter (969,000 sq ft) passenger terminal, according to an airport statement. Its operators aim to handle 80 million passengers per year across 540,000 flights, with the first phase due to open in 2035. “The country’s largest offshore airport is rising slowly from the sea level like the sunrise in the east,” reads a post by Dalian Jinzhou Bay International on Chinese social media platform ‘’WeChat’’. Once completed, it will become the world’s largest airport on an artificial island, surpassing both Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) and Japan’s Kansai Airport (KIX).

“There have been great challenges to the construction,” Li Xiang, chief engineer of Dalian Airport Construction and Development Co., Ltd., told state-run local media in October, “as the project has complex geological conditions, high drilling difficulty and high demand in quality with a tight construction schedule.” (CNN)

Photo: An artist’s rendering of the Dalian Jinzhou Bay International Airport. Dalian International Airport.